Registered

I find myself wondering. John Cena's acting career is really taking off - he's obviously not as popular as The Rock and never will be, but he's still landing major holywood role after role, such as Fast Furious 9. We all remember what happened last time Rock wrestled at WM29, he got injured, and production of his next movie got delayed, which cost a ton of money. Pretty sure John Cena is in a similar situation these days - where the insurance costs for him wrestling would be huge, and he may not want to risk it.

I personally loved the Firefly Fun house match - but let's be serious, it was more of an acting job than a physical 'wrestling' match. In other words - no risk of injury to his movie career.

Was this always the plan? Keep him safe from any physical content to avoid potential injury? Would this match have happened the same way if it had been in a full arena?

Cutting a Shoot Promo To Get Over

Very interesting theory. I do wonder how hurt Cena actually is and how much risk he is under. He hasn't had a proper match in two years and I don't recall that being that intense (vs HHH). If you have someone like Cena there is no reason not to have him in proper matches at Wrestlemania and Summerslam.

My only argument is that that the build for Cena vs Wyatt began before the pandemic and they would not have done a cinematic match under normal circumstances.

Registered

Very interesting theory. I do wonder how hurt Cena actually is and how much risk he is under. He hasn't had a proper match in two years and I don't recall that being that intense (vs HHH). If you have someone like Cena there is no reason not to have him in proper matches at Wrestlemania and Summerslam.

My only argument is that that the build for Cena vs Wyatt began before the pandemic and they would not have done a cinematic match under normal circumstances.

Did you read what I posted? I feel like you missed my point. I'm not suggesting Cena is actually injured and not cleared to wrestle - i'm saying, what if the plan was never to wrestle, to prevent him getting injured which could cause huge issues for holywood.

Which is why i'm asking - was this cinematic match always the plan, even without the pandemic?

Registered

I think he was cleared to wrestle, including his Hollywood obligations. I read somewhere that he was expecting to have a "major role" at Wrestlemania, that suggests that if the situation was normal, he could have had a decent length match with someone.

Registered

The last competitive match John Cena wrestled was in 2018 against Triple H, (Saudi Arabia) after that most of his matches has been tag team matches and short singles matches were he just goes through the motions and not take many bumps.

The last Cena's appearances have been a return of favors. He shows up and elevate/gives the run to someone (Nakamura, Becky, Elias and now Bray Wyatt), he promotes WWE and the company promotes his new projects (tv shows and movies).

To be fair an standard match with The Fiend wouldn't have made much difference, they already had a compettive match in 2014, Cena does not take bumps anymore and The Fiend is not known for his in-ring work.

Registered

Are there any ongoing films where Cena (potentially) getting injured would've caused anything greater than a minor inconvenience?
AFAIK, F9 and The Suicide Squad bot completed the majority of filming months ago.... and I'm not aware of anything else Cena is lined up for?

So, even if he were injured.... what would that impact? A reshoot or two, maybe? Those are things companies can work around. If anything, if he were to have gotten injured, he'd do more damage to his reputation in Hollywood than he would to the overall 'cost' of a movie production.

If he's scheduled to be in anything lower budget, he's probably able to name his terms - ie, "I'm doing Wrestlemania 36, non-negotiable" and they'd likely work around him on the offchance he got injured.

Registered

The insurance involved in making movies is absolutely crazy. An injury to an actor even a supporting one can cause immense delays and substantial premium increase and maybe even cause the inability to insure an actor on a certain production. I'm not sure it played a part in Cena's role at WrestleMania this year as much as the pandemic created an opportunity to do something outside the box and physically protect both performers as best as possible.